Benjamin Alire Saenz's stories reveal how all borders--real, imagined, sexual, human, the line between dark and light, addict and straight--entangle those who live on either side. Take, for instance, the Kentucky Club on Avenida Juarez two blocks south of the Rio Grande. It's a touchstone for each of Saenz's stories. His characters walk by, they might go in for a drink or to score, or they might just stay there for a while and let their story be told. Saenz knows that the Kentucky Club, like special watering holes in all cities, is the contrary to borders. It welcomes Spanish and English, Mexicans and gringos, poor and rich, gay and straight, drug addicts and drunks, laughter and sadness, and even despair. It's a place of rich history and good drinks and cold beer and a long polished mahogany bar. Some days it smells like piss. "I'm going home to the other side." That's a strange statement, but you hear it all the time at the Kentucky Club. Benjamin Alire Saenz is a highly regarded writer of fiction, poetry, and children's literature. Like these stories, his writing crosses borders and lands in our collective psyche. "Poets & Writers Magazine "named him one of the fifty most inspiring writers in the world. He's been a finalist for the "Los Angeles Times "Book Prize and PEN Center's prestigious award for young adult fiction. Saenz is the chair of the creative writing department of University of Texas at El Paso.

Tis the season for new beginnings: Molly has spent her last Christmas alone. After waiting five years for Garrick to notice her as more than his mother’s caregiver. The aggravating male might always have a place in her heart, but she’s determined to find someone who wants to build a family with her. She had no idea that writing a letter of resignation would bring Garrick back to the Wildlands. It will take a Christmas miracle to bring them together: Garrick can’t believe that Molly is willing to walk away. She’d not only become irreplaceable to his mother, but he’d become addicted to her letters when he was far away from home. He’d be damned if he was going to let her slip away. But once back in the Wildlands, Garrick is forced to choose between opening his heart to the female he loves or risk losing her forever.

She said I was like a song. Her favorite song. A song isn’t something you can see. It’s something you feel, something you move to, something that disappears after the last note is played. I won my first fight when I was eleven years old, and I’ve been throwing punches ever since. Fighting is the purest, truest, most elemental thing there is. Some people describe heaven as a sea of unending white. Where choirs sing and loved ones await. But for me, heaven was something else. It sounded like the bell at the beginning of a round, it tasted like adrenaline, it burned like sweat in my eyes and fire in my belly. It looked like the blur of screaming crowds and an opponent who wanted my blood. For me, heaven was the octagon. Until I met Millie, and heaven became something different. I became something different. I knew I loved her when I watched her stand perfectly still in the middle of a crowded room, people swarming, buzzing, slipping around her, her straight dancer’s posture unyielding, her chin high, her hands loose at her sides. No one seemed to see her at all, except for the few who squeezed past her, tossing exasperated looks at her unsmiling face. When they realized she wasn’t normal, they hurried away. Why was it that no one saw her, yet she was the first thing I saw? If heaven was the octagon, then she was my angel at the center of it all, the girl with the power to take me down and lift me up again. The girl I wanted to fight for, the girl I wanted to claim. The girl who taught me that sometimes the biggest heroes go unsung and the most important battles are the ones we don’t think we can win.

In England’s Regency era, manners and elegance reign in public life—but behind closed doors treason and tawdriness thrive. Nicholas Langdon is no stranger to reserved civility or bloody barbarity. After suffering a battlefield injury, the wealthy, well-connected British officer returns home to heal—and to fulfill a dying soldier’s last wish by delivering his coded diary. At the home of the Wilherns, one of England’s most powerful families, Langdon attends a lavish ball where he meets their beautiful and intelligent ward, Julia Grey. Determined to maintain propriety, he keeps his distance—until the diary is stolen and all clues lead to Julia’s guardian. As Langdon traces an evil plot that could be the nation’s undoing, he grows ever more intrigued by the lovely young woman. And when Julia realizes that England—and the man she is falling in love with—need her help, she finds herself caught in the fray. Will the two succumb to their attraction while fighting to save their country?

*2:02...2:01...2:00 What the hell was this? I stared at the numbers, numb with horror. The box was a bomb. And it was going to go off in two minutes.* Charlie's life is torn apart by a terrorist bomb in a London market. Months later she meets Nat, whose family has been left devastated by the same explosion. But as Charlie gets closer to Nat she starts to wonder if he knows more about the attack than he is letting on... Life can change in the blink of an eye - whether you're ready or not. The new bestseller from the award-winning Sophie McKenzie.

In her day, Mary Roberts Rinehart was known as the "American Agatha Christie," which is quite a sign of respect given that Christie is one of the greatest mystery writers in history. Rinehart's works are also still popular today.

Castle Richmond by Anthony Trollope

Beyond his marital disputes, Lace has greater issues troubling him. He’s recently returned from work, where he serves as an emergency response rescuer. His wife Judy has become less agreeable to his extreme occupation. As the two face opposing conflict, details emerge involving the couple’s unusual outside environment.An un-named immortal tells of how he returned to one of his old stomping grounds to make good a promise he made centuries ago. But in doing so, he winds up in hot water.This is part one of a three-part tale, but can be read alone as a short story. The remainder of the story will be released soon.

Throughout the year, Paige Johnston has only one ambition; to go out with Gavin Hunter; a popular boy in school. However, by year's end Paige discovers she has lost focus on her studies and has failed the 12th grade, but a enchanted nightmarish dream foreshadows her destiny with Gavin.Sarah Amalfi and her best friend Samantha are headed to Tijuana looking for some summer fun after their high school graduation... but there’s something far more sinister looming over this road trip than an innocent shopping trip at Tijuana’s famous market place… Warnings from strangers, a vicious attack by a shadowy assailant, a charismatic stranger named Will…What do they want with Sarah?Sarah is forced to consider that there was nothing chance about her meeting with Will, but how can she accept the fantastic possibilities that Will presents to her? A hidden realm within our own, governed by cryptic magic, ancient alliances, demons… and passion beyond her understandingThe truth comes hard and fast in this riveting prequel to the romantic supernatural awakening of Gathering Storm!

Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0380711966 here. Mary Horton is content with her comfortable, solitary existence... until she meets Tim. A beautiful young man with the mind of a child - a gentle outcast in a cruel, unbending world - he illuminates the darkness of Mary's days with his boyish innocence. And he will shatter the lonely, middle-aged spinster's respectable, ordered life with a forbidden promise of a very special love.

Newly engaged, Ellie is thrilled to be accepted into the loving Cooper clan—which seems like the perfect family she never had—until she begins to realize that Dan’s mom, Linda, is a little too involved. Dan and Linda talk on the phone every day. Twice a day. As Dan and Ellie’s intimate civil wedding ceremony gets transformed into a black-tie affair, Ellie begins to wonder if it’s possible to marry the man without marrying his mother. As troubles mount, Ellie turns to her friends—glamorous Lisa, who always looks like she’s just stepped off a runway, and wonderfully frazzled Trish—and tries to rediscover the independence she once had, and the man she still loves. But it seems that having a child and saving a marriage means growing up in ways she’d never imagined . . . A warm, witty, and wise look at mothers-in-law and what they teach us about ourselves, The Other Woman is sure to please Jane Green’s growing legion of fans.

RUMORS AND GOSSIP ... THE LIFEBLOOD OF LONDON When Olivia Bevelstoke is told that her new neighbor may have killed his fiancee, she doesn't believe it for a second, but, still, how can she help spying on him, just to be sure? So she stakes out a spot near her bedroom window, cleverly concealed by curtains, watches, and waits ... and discovers a most intriguing man, who is definitely up to something. Sir Harry Valentine works for the boring branch of the War Office, translating documents vital to national security. He's not a spy, but he's had all the training, and when a gorgeous blonde begins to watch him from her window, he is instantly suspicious. But just when he decides that she's nothing more than an annoyingly nosy debutante, he discovers that she might be engaged to a foreign prince, who might be plotting against England. And when Harry is roped into spying on Olivia, he discovers that he might be falling for her himself ...

'I'm looking for that perfect blend of flavours; the taste that used to be you. If I find it, I know you'll come back to me.' It's been 18 months since my husband was murdered and I've decided to finish writing The Flavours of Love, the cookbook he started before he died. Everyone thinks I'm coping so well without him - they have no idea what I've been hiding or what I do away from prying eyes. But now that my 14-year-old daughter has confessed something so devastating it could destroy our family all over again, and my husband's killer has started to write to me claiming to be innocent, I know it's only a matter of time before the truth about me and what I've done is revealed to the world. My name is Saffron Mackleroy and this is my story.

In The Chance, New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury delves deeply into a theme that resonates with us all: It’s never too late for those willing to take a chance. Years ago, the day before Ellie moved from Georgia to California, she and her best friend Nolan sat beneath the Spanish moss of an ancient oak tree where they wrote letters to each other, and sealed them in a rusty old metal box. The plan was to return eleven years later and read them. But now, as that date arrives, much has changed. Ellie, bereft of the faith she grew up with, is a single mom living in a tired apartment trying to make ends meet. Sometimes she watches television to catch a glimpse of her old friend —Nolan, now an NBA star, whose terrible personal tragedies fueled his faith and athletic drive in equal measure. But Nolan also suffers from a transcendent loneliness that nothing has ever eased.

Captain Alisa Marchenko finally has a lead on finding her daughter, but her passengers want her to take them on their quest instead. Even though the Star Nomad is her ship, they have power she cannot fight, and she finds herself with no choice but to accept another detour. But the ancient relic they seek has the ability to destroy worlds and is coveted by many. The path leading to it is riddled with competitors and littered with the dead, and even a cyborg and a Starseer may not be strong enough to fight the obstacles in the way. Swept up in a fate she never chose, Alisa must find a way to survive against impossible odds, knowing that if her passengers succeed, they will change the course of history—maybe not for the better.